1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle including an engine stopping/starting control unit for interrupting, during running, ignition control of an engine under a specific vehicle stopping condition, and re-starting, after interruption, the ignition control of the engine in response to a specific vehicle moving operation. Particularly, an engine stopping/starting control unit is disclosed with improved accelerating performance upon vehicle movement.
2. Background Art
An engine stopping/starting control unit intended to suppress the emission of exhaust gas, particularly upon idling, and fuel consumption, has been disclosed. One such unit is disclosed in Japanese patent Laid-open No. Sho 63-75323. In this patent, the control unit performs such that when a vehicle is stopped, the engine is automatically stopped, and when a throttle grip is operated to move the vehicle, the engine is automatically restarted to move the vehicle.
In a light vehicle, such as a motorcycle or a three-wheeled vehicle, it may be desirable to use a head lamp in the daytime as well as in the nighttime. This can cause problems when the light vehicle moves from the stopped position. Because activation of the head lamp increases the power requirement from the generator, the required driving torque of the generator is correspondingly increased. As a result, the vehicle in which the head lamp is left on has an increased mechanical load on the engine. This negatively affects accelerating performance.
To solve the above problem, a technique has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Sho 58-179134, in which the power generation amount of a generator is lowered upon rapid acceleration in order to reduce the load on the engine, thereby ensuring sufficient accelerating performance.
For a light vehicle such as a motorcycle or a three-wheeled vehicle, it may also be desirable to keep the head lamp on for improved visibility to the opposite lane during running and upon vehicle stop, such as at a stoplight.
For the vehicle including the engine stopping/starting control unit, however, since the engine is automatically stopped upon vehicle stop, if the head lamp is left on, a discharge of the battery rapidly proceeds. As a result, upon vehicle movement after automatic stoppage, the power generation amount of the generator is increased, so that the load of the engine is correspondingly increased, thereby reducing accelerating performance.
As described above, for the vehicle including the engine stopping/starting control unit in which the head lamp is left on upon vehicle stop, there arises the problem that sufficient accelerating performance cannot be obtained upon rapid acceleration during running and upon vehicle movement after automatic stoppage of the engine.